Westland Wallace returns for inclusion in latest London exhibition
The fuselage of Westland Wallace II K6035 arrived back at the RAF Museum London at Hendon on 19 September prior to inclusion in a new inter-war exhibition, ‘Higher, Faster, Further’, which is due to open to the public on 4 December. The September 1935-built Wallace, restored by Skysport Engineering in Bedfordshire during the late 1980s and early 1990s, had spent the past few years in storage at the museum’s Stafford site.
Grace Ries, head of exhibitions and interpretation at the RAFM says, “Our new exhibition shares the story of the challenges and achievements of the RAF in the years between the two world wars — a time of extreme social, political and technological change. Displays of personal objects have enabled us to share the stories of aviation pioneers and record-breakers of the 1920s and 1930s who helped establish the RAF as an independent air force and who brought awareness of the joy — and glamour — of civil aviation into the public realm. Themes include areas on how the RAF used new technologies to break records, how it became a global force and how it expanded in the years leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War.”
Other aircraft due for inclusion are Bristol Bulldog IIa K2227/G-ABBB — also restored by Skysport — together with Sopwith Snipe reproduction ‘E6655’, the fuselage of Supermarine Southampton I N9899, and Hawker Hart II J9941/G-ABMR.
The Wallace served with No 502 Squadron at Aldergrove, County Antrim during 1936 and has been restored in those markings, but with one side of the fuselage uncovered to show construction methods. It subsequently joined No 1 Electrical and Wireless School at Cranwell, and after becoming redundant as an instructional airframe during the war was dumped, along with two other examples, in a wooded area on the edge of Cranwell North aerodrome. Rediscovered in April 1963, the Wallace initially went to the embryonic Newark Air Museum at Winthorpe, Nottinghamshire, before being transferred to the RAF Museum in April 1977. The meticulous restoration by Skysport eventually saw the completed fuselage containing 80 per cent original parts. It first went on show at Hendon in March 1993, and its return for the ‘Higher, Faster, Further’ project fills what would otherwise be a major gap in the displays there.
